Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-25
The Tahur GNnrld.
WHENCE CAME UNIONS?
The Bold Barons of Modern Times---The
Industrial Situation.
Effect of Laboi Saving Machinery on So
ciety.

this added wealth-produclng power;
from it not an iota of advantage,
though their masters mouthpieces,
''tho able editors" keep them quiet by
convincing them they do. Let us set
tie this question here.
John Stuart Mill, who needs no IN
dorsement in what he states as a fact,
says-I quote from memory: 1T can
not be shown that since the introduce
ton of labor-saving machinery the
hours of labor have shortened a single
moment, his burden lightened a single
ounce"
Centuries before the Christian era a
wandering Greek brought home from
far Asia the idea of the Windmill. TO
~triturate the grain for food
was the hardest task Of the slaves. A
poet, his name unknown, whose only
fragment we have is this in the Greek
anthology, welcomes the invention;
sleep. weary slaves. Let Mother Nature toll.
Sleep, rest, till dawn sheds bushes on the
sky.
Sow, reap the h~arvests Of the generous soil,
But lay the grieyous, heavy pestie by.
Sleep, rest, and bless the man who brought
this boon
That lightens labor, granted shorter hours,
And praise the gods that loved you when at
noon
You lie in shade the while its hopper pours.
The poet and the cable editor" are
both wrong. The invention brought
no rest for the weary. But the poet
thought it would, and was glad. The
able editor knows that as invention
won for labor the right to leisure luxury
only made new demand on his time.
Let us search out the reason.
The w~age-earner is a product Of con
ditions also. A moEopolized world is
the reason for his existence. With no
capital but hands or brains, to live he
seeks employ. The rate Of increase is
greater ia his class than in the classes
above him in the social scale. Denied
free access to the land, still he wants
to be fed. The employer, as the rela-
tive number of the eXilcd from the land
increases, can dictate terms. The
wages cannot rise higher than the pur-
chasing power needed to sustain the
wage earncr's productive power. His
hungering competitors forbid that.
As new inventions come into use
pecial intelligence is required. For
hem at first the supply of labor is
limited and the wages, for a time, per-
haps are above this. But the knowl-
edge of the fact is an incentive, and
they soon find their level. Competi-
ton may even bring the wages below
that point. The ~wage-earner must
then be content with baser conditions.
The profit made by the employer IN
no way affects the wage Garner as such.
His labor is bought in the open market.
There he looks for a bargain in labor
as in wheat or potatoes. That market
is always redundant here. Ireland,
Germany, Bohemia, Poland ard Nor
way are out of doors, and China cannot
be excluded.
Machinery sometimes requires spe-
cially skilled labor. To obtain this
skill and preserve it the laborer must
enjoy better conditions than the un-
skilled. In the market the employer
must pay for the added cost of the con
ditions. But this is not participation
of the profit. BY the skill the profits
are assured, are greater, but the higher
wages arc paid simply because the
competitors are fewer. There is 40
surplus in wages, there can be none.
! hey cannot rise above the point re-
squirrel to keep their business in aprotit-
making condition. The apparent ex-
eeptions can only establish the law. If
the conditions of men seem bettered, it
is only because more skill is required
of the w~ase-ssrner. His vocation re
suires and demands a higher standard
of living. If, a hundred years ago, a
Corliss engine had been in use, driving
innumerable power looms, competition
with it would have been impossible.
In control Of the worlds market, what
enormous profit it would have made.
If then only one engineer in the world
could run it, what wages would It's
owners have gladly paid him' But his
high wages would have been no shar-
ing of the profit. That existed only
after he was paid. His wages at any
rate are but a part of the expenses. He
is but the soul of the engine. Their
oint use is indispensable to secure the
profit. If there were three such en-
Zines, and they did not form a union,
he one employed would get little more
than the wages of other engineers.
The books of every factory rate
fages as expenses, and give the point
blank lie to the assumption that the
wage Garner obtains any share of the
profits or has a surplus over the ex-
penses Of living.
To recur TO the main line Of the dis
cussion I said the bold baron was
again in our midst. Here, and angry
at his threatened loss of ''contrOl and